Communications

Agenda and minutes from all meetings of Port of Seattle Police Civil Service Commission between May 1, 2012, and the time of processing of this request.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on April 25, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on April 25, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on April 25, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Agenda and minutes from all meetings of Port of Seattle Police Civil Service Commission between May 1, 2012, and the time of processing of this request.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

On June 17, 2013, Vanessa Ressler wrote, "All of our final and approved minutes for the meetings are posted on line on the Police Civil Service section of the Police Department Website." Though it is possible that such is accurate at some point in time, no such minutes were posted to the site at the time I placed my request for them. Thus, I am reluctant to trust that whatever happens to be posted to the site at any time as being accurately indicative of what records exist.

Furthermore, directing a requester to your online index of documents, while likely a genuine attempt at helpfulness, is not compliance with our state's Public Records Act unless the request was for that index. I did not request an index.

As you probably know, section 520 of the PRC (RCW 42.56.520) requires you to do one of the following:

1. Provide the record

2. Provide an internet address and link on the agency's web site to the specific records requested, except that if the requester notifies the agency that he or she cannot access the records through the internet, then the agency must provide copies of the record or allow the requester to view copies using an agency computer

3. Acknowledge that the agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives has received the request and provide a reasonable estimate of the time the agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives will require to respond to the request;

On June 17, 2013, Vanessa Ressler wrote, "All of our final and approved minutes for the meetings are posted on line on the Police Civil Service section of the Police Department Website." Though it is possible that such is accurate at some point in time, no such minutes were posted to the site at the time I placed my request for them. Thus, I am reluctant to trust that whatever happens to be posted to the site at any time as being accurately indicative of what records exist.

Furthermore, directing a requester to your online index of documents, while likely a genuine attempt at helpfulness, is not compliance with our state's Public Records Act unless the request was for that index. I did not request an index.

As you probably know, section 520 of the PRC (RCW 42.56.520) requires you to do one of the following:

1. Provide the record

2. Provide an internet address and link on the agency's web site to the specific records requested, except that if the requester notifies the agency that he or she cannot access the records through the internet, then the agency must provide copies of the record or allow the requester to view copies using an agency computer

3. Acknowledge that the agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives has received the request and provide a reasonable estimate of the time the agency, the office of the secretary of the senate, or the office of the chief clerk of the house of representatives will require to respond to the request;

The link above provided to you in my response, does connect to all of the agendas and minutes. You must scroll down to the bottom of the page to access the PDF versions of the records. Each title is a link to the document.

Given the fact that I did not request all minutes and agendas from Port of Seattle Police Civil Service Commission, a reference to an index of all minutes and agendas is not "an internet address and link on the agency's web site to the specific records requested" any more than a link to the homepage of your agency would be, or than a reference "to the World Wide Web" as a whole would be. You have not taken any of the actions required of you by RCW 42.56.520.

I look forward to notification of determination of outcome of my appeal.

Dear Mr. Mocek - Ms. Ressler has forwarded to me your appeal of her response to you concerning your public records request for certain Police Civil Service Commission records.

I've reviewed your original request, our correspondence to you, and your appeal of June 24, 2013. In your request, you identified the following records as being the subject of your request:

Agenda and minutes from all meetings of Port of Seattle Police Civil Service Commission between May 1, 2012, and the time of processing of this request.

In response, Ms. Ressler directed you to the Port's Police Civil Service Commission website that contains electronic copies of the agendas and the approved minutes of the Police Civil Service Commission meetings. As she has explained to you, you can access the agendas and minutes are there. If you go to the website, scroll to the bottom, and click on the dates for each meeting, the agendas and minutes for each meeting will open.

The links to the agendas and minutes are more than an index of meeting dates. After reading your appeal, I went to the website and checked these links myself. The Port has directed you to the portion of our website that contains copies of the records that we understand you have requested. Perhaps there is a technical issue with your hardware or software that is preventing these links from opening properly and displaying these records. If this is the case, I can understand why accessing these links would be frustrating for you.

Please let me know if these additional instructions have helped you access these records. Please feel free to contact me if you have any other concern about the Port's response to your records request. - Traci Goodwin